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Wednesday, February 21, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Former priest charged for pornography
By Jim Cornelius
Editor in Chief
PHOTO PROVIDED
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batteries across the Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District.
Fire district offers
free smoke alarms
Sisters firefighters and
EMTs respond in a hurry
when there is a fire or medi-
cal emergency in Sisters.
But they’d rather head off
an emergency before it hap-
pens — or fight a fire when
it’s small.
Twenty-two Sisters-Camp
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District. In 2017, Fire Corps
members volunteered 2,352
hours to the District through
many of their service pro-
grams including: smoke
alarm testing/installation,
blood pressure screening, and
child safety seat checks.
• Smoke
alarms:
Volunteers are available
to check smoke alarms by
appointment. New battery
powered alarms are available
for free, as well as replace-
ment batteries for wired units
while supplies last. If your
alarms are older than 10 years,
they should be replaced. Last
year, volunteers from the
Fire Corps and American
Red Cross performed resi-
dential smoke alarm testing
in 29 homes and installed 91
smoke alarms.
• Blood pressure screen-
ing: Fire Corps members
staff a blood pressure clinic
at Bi-Mart in Sisters on the
third Tuesday of each month
and the senior luncheon at
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Community members are
also able to stop in at the
main fire station at 301 S.
Elm St. during regular busi-
ness hours and have a free
blood pressure screening.
Blood pressure readings for
last year totaled 416.
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Rev. W. Thomas Foucher,
72, who served as par-
ish priest at St. Edward the
Martyr Catholic Church in
Sisters for six years end-
ing in 2002, was arrested on
February 2 in Boise, Idaho,
on multiple charges involving
child pornography and drugs.
The Idaho Statesman
reported on February 5 that
Faucher, now retired, “is
charged with 10 counts of
sexual exploitation of a child,
and two counts of distributing
sexually exploitative material
involving children. His last
two charges are both for drug
possession. All of the charges
are felonies except for both
drug counts.”
Faucher was arrested on
a warrant from the Idaho
Attorney General’s Office,
and a search warrant was
served on his home in Boise,
which he rents from the
Catholic Church.
According to the
Statesman report, “Ada
County Deputy Prosecutor
Kassandra Slaven … said
some images on Faucher’s
computer involved young
children, including infants
and toddlers. The images
included children being sub-
jected to different sexual acts
and torture, she said.
“Slaven also described
email conversations where
Faucher reportedly traded
images and talked about his
‘sexual interest in children.’
She said Faucher has a ‘very
sophisticated knowledge’ of
exchanging and viewing child
pornography. And in certain
chats investigators viewed,
she said, he expressed a desire
to molest children. One such
chat screen was open on his
computer when police served
the search warrant, she said.”
Faucher was held on
$250,000 bail, which he has
subsequently posted to obtain
release. Faucher’s attorney
Mark Manweiler argued for
his release citing a lack of
any criminal record and an
“impeccable reputation,” the
Statesman reports.
Faucher arrived in Sisters
in 1996 to become par-
ish priest at St. Edward the
Martyr Catholic Church,
which at that time had been
without a priest for 2-1/2
years. Faucher was “on loan”
from Boise. He stayed in
Sisters for six years. During
that time, he doubled the
number of families attend-
ing the parish and oversaw
the creation of St. Winifred’s
Garden and a building
addition.
When the national scandal
involving sexual abuse in the
church broke in 2002, Father
Faucher led some 70 people
in a deep and sometimes emo-
tional discussion of the mat-
ter. As The Nugget reported
at the time, Faucher “empha-
sized the need for reform in
the church. He argued that
there is something system-
atically wrong with the way
the church handled cases of
molestation by priests.
“Every time abuse
occurred, it was looked at
as an exceptional case,”
Faucher said. “When you
look at something that hap-
pens over and over again as
an exceptional case, then
somebody is not looking at
things right.”
Faucher noted, the church
often focused far more of
its concern on the molesting
priest than on the victim.
“This was the biggest
mistake the church made,”
Faucher said. “We tended to
focus all our attention and all
our concern on the priest who
did it, not on the person who
was violated.”
The Idaho Statesman
has also reported, “Until his
recent arrest, Catholic Church
officials say they didn’t
investigate any complaints
about the Rev. W. Thomas
Faucher because they had
none.”
In the wake of the arrest,
however, the Roman Catholic
Diocese of Boise reported
that Faucher has now been
accused of sexually abusing a
minor more than 40 years ago.
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